Standing in line at a San Antonio Subway during last months AFCA Convention, I struck up conversation with a Metroplex high school coach. The conversation steered toward recruiting scene in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the coach mentioned the usual suspects -- UT, A&M, Baylor, TCU -- were frequent visitors in his offices. The coach said SMU coaches never showed their faces in his hallways, until Chad Morris got the job.
One look around campus or one its coaches' social media testifies to that change. But there are a few moments, four of them actually, in SMU's two-minute, 39-second Signing Day recap that truly summarizes Chad Morris' change in emphasis on the Hilltop.
Right around the one minute mark, SMU associate AD Matt Roberts announces, NFL Draft style, a member of the Mustangs' singing class: "The tenth member of StangGang16, Eric Sutton, defensive end from Cedar Hill High School.... and coached by Joey McGuire."
Those last five words, "and coached by Joey McGuire," explain everything Morris has been about from the day he arrived in Dallas in December 2014.
Morris pledged allegiance to Texas high school football and its coaches, speaking as one of their own, from the moment his feet hit Texas soil. And Wednesday showed the fruits of that labor: 24 new Mustangs, and every last one of them hailing from Texas.